Big guns unite in Cup tilt

Finche’s heavyweight owners dare to dream

WHAT do you get when you mix some of the owners of a handful of the greatest racehorses of all-time — Winx, Black Caviar, Frankel and Enable?

You might just get Chris Waller’s first Melbourne Cup winner.

Finche, the former French galloper who Waller imported last year ran a super fourth in the 2018 Melbourne Cup, but is arguably more seasoned this year.

Peter Tighe, one of Winx’s three owners, couldn’t be more pleased with Finche’s preparations and is daring to dream he and his fellow owners can win the $7.75 million race that not only stops the nation but now attracts the rest of the world.

Tighe is a part of a stellar ownership group which includes one of Black Caviar’s owners, Neil Werrett, as well as Juddmonte Farm’s Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, who owned unbeaten English superstar Frankel (Finche’s sire) and still races UK star Enable.

Incredibly, those four champions won a total of 89 of their 97 starts, with Frankel and Black Caviar undefeated, Winx winning 33 consecutive races (and 37 overall) in her 43start career, and Enable so far winning 13 of her 15 starts.

“We have got a few people in there,” Tighe said. “Neil [Werrett] is there. “We also have sheik Khalid from Juddmonte Farm, and he has owned Enable and Frankel, and this bloke [Finche] is a son of Frankel.” Tighe said he had always wanted to have a Melbourne Cup on his mantelpiece, but said if Finche can win tomorrow he was looking forward to a “joyous blue” to see which of the owners would get to keep the 2019 “Loving Cup.”

Master trainer Waller is yet to win a Melbourne Cup but has made no secret of the fact that he thinks Finche represents one of his best chances to date.